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Born in the Bronx, NY. At age 10, she received a Metropolitan Opera scholarship for studies at New York's High School of Music and Art, where she and Billy Dee Williams were classmates. While studying sociology at NYU, she modeled and began singing in nightclubs and performing on TV, making both her Broadway (House of Flowers) and Hollywood (CARMEN JONES) debuts in 1954. Subsequently she starred in Broadway's No Strings (Tony® Award, 1962) and in TV's "Julia" (1968-71), the first regular series to star a black personality. She was engaged to Sidney Poitier in the 1960s, and in the early 1970s she was engaged to journalist David Frost. She was nominated for an Oscar® for her performance in CLAUDINE (1974).
Oddly, she's rarely made any films since then (THE FIVE HEARTBEATS and COLOR ADJUSTMENT, both 1991, and EVE'S BAYOU, 1997), but she has appeared frequently on television. In 1984, she joined the cast of the TV series "Dynasty." Autobiography (w. Ross Firestone): Diahann (1986). She is a breast cancer survivor and has been married four times, most recently (1987 - 1996) to singer Vic Damone.
1 nomination |
Nominated for Actress